March 18, 2014

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to urge you to fulfill the promise in your State of the Union address to make this
a year of action and build upon the momentum of 2013 by signing an executive order banning
federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) Americans. As you have said before, now is the time to end this kind
of discrimination, not enable it.
As we continue to work towards final passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA) with strong bipartisan support, we urge you to take action now to protect millions of
workers across the country from the threat of discrimination simply because of who they are or
who they love. We are committed to doing all that we can in Congress to get ENDA to your desk
this year; however, there is no reason you cannot immediately act by taking this important
step. This executive order would provide LGBT people with another avenue in the federal
government they could turn to if they were the victim of employment discrimination by a federal
contractor. When combined with ENDA, these non-discrimination protections would parallel
those that have been in place for decades on the basis of race, sex and religion.
An executive order covering LGBT employees would be in line with a bipartisan, decades-long
commitment to eradicating taxpayer-funded discrimination in the workplace. In 1941, President
Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in defense contracts on the bases of race, creed, color, or
national origin. In subsequent executive orders, Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower,
Kennedy, and Johnson expanded these protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to
discriminate.
In addition, most of the largest government contractors companies like Boeing, Raytheon, and
Lockheed Martin have LGBT non-discrimination policies in place. They adopted them
because business leaders recognize that discrimination is bad for the bottom line.
Finally, time is of the essence. Even with an executive order in place, full implementation of
these protections will require regulations to be developed and finalized, a process that will take
many months, if not longer, to fully put in place.

Issuing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT workers in federal contracts
would build on the significant progress for LGBT rights made during your time as President and
would further your legacy as a champion for LGBT equality. We urge you to act now to prevent
irrational, taxpayer-funded workplace discrimination against LGBT Americans.
Sincerely,

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Jeffrey A. Merkley
United States Senator

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Jared Polis
Member of Congress

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Tom Harkin
United States Senator

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Mike Michaud
Member of Congress

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Tammy Baldwin
United States Senator

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David N. Cicilline
Member of Congress

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Mazie K. Hirono
United States Senator

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Sean Patrick Maloney
Member of Congress

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Tim Kaine
United States Senator

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Mark Pocan
Member of Congress

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Christopher Coons
United States Senator

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Kyrsten Sinema
Member of Congress

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Jeanne Shaheen
United States Senator

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Mark Takano
Member of Congress

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Richard Durbin
United States Senator

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Frank Pallone, Jr.
Member of Congress

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Patrick Leahy
United States Senator

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Lois Capps
Member of Congress

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Elizabeth Warren
United States Senator

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Steny H. Hoyer
Member of Congress

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Sheldon Whitehouse
United States Senator

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James E. Clyburn
Member of Congress

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Patty Murray
United States Senator

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Joseph Crowley
Member of Congress

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Kirsten Gillibrand
United States Senator

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Steve Israel
Member of Congress

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Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

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Diana DeGette
Member of Congress

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Carl Levin
United States Senator

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Joe Garcia
Member of Congress

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Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator

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Ral M. Grijalva
Member of Congress

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Bernard Sanders
United States Senator

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Michael Honda
Member of Congress

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Al Franken
United States Senator

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Barbara Lee
Member of Congress

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Martin Heinrich
United States Senator

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Jerrold Nadler
Member of Congress

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Sherrod Brown
United States Senator

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Adam Schiff
Member of Congress

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Edward J. Markey
United States Senator

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Matt Cartwright
Member of Congress

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Jack Reed
United States Senator

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Alan Lowenthal
Member of Congress

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Thomas R. Carper
United States Senator

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Charles B. Rangel
Member of Congress

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Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator

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Jan Schakowsky
Member of Congress

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Benjamin L. Cardin
United States Senator

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Allyson Y. Schwartz
Member of Congress

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Mark Udall
United States Senator

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Jackie Speier
Member of Congress

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Ron Wyden
United States Senator

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Tony Cardenas
Member of Congress

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Christopher Murphy
United States Senator

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Sam Farr
Member of Congress

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Brian Schatz
United States Senator

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Brian Higgins
Member of Congress

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Barbara Mikulski
United States Senator

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Hank Johnson
Member of Congress

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Tim Johnson
United States Senator

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Jim Moran
Member of Congress

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Charles Schumer
United States Senator

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Louise Slaughter
Member of Congress

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Bill Nelson
United States Senator

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Niki Tsongas
Member of Congress

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Jon Tester
United States Senator

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Carol Shea-Porter
Member of Congress

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Mark Begich
United States Senator

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Eric Swalwell
Member of Congress

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Mary L. Landrieu
United States Senator

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Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress

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Robert Menendez
United States Senator

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Robert A. Brady
Member of Congress

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Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator

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Susan A. Davis
Member of Congress

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Cory Booker
United States Senator

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Mike Doyle
Member of Congress

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Claire McCaskill
United States Senator

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Alcee L. Hastings
Member of Congress

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Richard Blumenthal
United States Senator

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Steven A. Horsford
Member of Congress

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Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

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Dan Kildee
Member of Congress

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Tom Udall
United States Senator

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Ron Kind
Member of Congress

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John D. Rockefeller, IV
United States Senator

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Ann McLane Kuster
Member of Congress

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Mark Warner
United States Senator

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Sander M. Levin
Member of Congress

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Joe Donnelly
United States Senator

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Zoe Lofgren
Member of Congress

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Kay Hagan
United States Senator

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Lucille-Roybal-Allard
Member of Congress

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Linda T. Snchez
Member of Congress

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George Miller
Member of Congress

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Adam Smith
Member of Congress

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Chris Van Hollen
Member of Congress

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Donald M. Payne, Jr.
Member of Congress

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Tammy Duckworth
Member of Congress

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Rosa DeLauro
Member of Congress

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James R. Langevin
Member of Congress

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James A. Himes
Member of Congress

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Lloyd Doggett
Member of Congress

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Kathy Castor
Member of Congress

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Frederica S. Wilson
Member of Congress

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Joaquin Castro
Member of Congress

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Michelle Lujan Grisham
Member of Congress

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Mike Thompson
Member of Congress

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Colleen W. Hanabusa
Member of Congress

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Gregory W. Meeks
Member of Congress

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Timothy H. Bishop
Member of Congress

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William R. Keating
Member of Congress

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Brad Schneider
Member of Congress

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Suzan K. DelBene
Member of Congress

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John Lewis
Member of Congress

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Dina Titus
Member of Congress

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John Yarmuth
Member of Congress

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Janice Hahn
Member of Congress

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Karen Bass
Member of Congress

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Marc Veasey
Member of Congress

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Joyce Beatty
Member of Congress

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Dan Maffei
Member of Congress

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Denny Heck
Member of Congress

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Alan Grayson
Member of Congress

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Filemon Vela
Member of Congress

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James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

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Suzanne Bonamici
Member of Congress

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Elizabeth Esty
Member of Congress

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Julia Brownley
Member of Congress

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Theodore E. Deutch
Member of Congress

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Ron Barber
Member of Congress

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Tim Walz
Member of Congress

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Jim McDermott
Member of Congress

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Lois Frankel
Member of Congress

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Loretta Sanchez
Member of Congress

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Mike Quigley
Member of Congress

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Kurt Schrader
Member of Congress

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Jerry McNerney
Member of Congress

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Rush Holt
Member of Congress

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Joseph P. Kennedy III
Member of Congress

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Bill Foster
Member of Congress

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Grace Meng
Member of Congress

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Chellie Pingree
Member of Congress

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Ami Bera
Member of Congress

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Ed Perlmutter
Member of Congress

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Michael E. Capuano
Member of Congress

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Derek Kilmer
Member of Congress

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Patrick E. Murphy
Member of Congress

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Judy Chu
Member of Congress

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Dave Loebsack
Member of Congress

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Juan Vargas
Member of Congress

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Gary C. Peters
Member of Congress

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Jared Huffman
Member of Congress

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John K. Delaney
Member of Congress

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Betty McCollum
Member of Congress

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Beto ORourke
Member of Congress

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Katherine Clark
Member of Congress

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Rick Larsen
Member of Congress

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Stephen F. Lynch
Member of Congress

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Eleanor Holmes Norton
Member of Congress

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John Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress

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Sheila Jackson Lee
Member of Congress

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Eliot L. Engel
Member of Congress

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David E. Price
Member of Congress

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Al Green
Member of Congress

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Henry A. Waxman
Member of Congress

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Robert C. Bobby Scott
Member of Congress

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Jim Matheson
Member of Congress

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Jos E. Serrano
Member of Congress

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John F. Tierney
Member of Congress

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Brad Sherman
Member of Congress

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Keith Ellison
Member of Congress

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Gwen Moore
Member of Congress

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Rubn Hinojosa
Member of Congress

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Bruce Braley
Member of Congress

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Nydia Velazquez
Member of Congress

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Peter Welch
Member of Congress

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Carolyn B. Maloney
Member of Congress

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Albio Sires
Member of Congress

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Joe Courtney
Member of Congress

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Yvette D. Clarke
Member of Congress

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Nita M. Lowey
Member of Congress

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Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress

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Steve Cohen
Member of Congress

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Luis V. Gutirrez
Member of Congress

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Scott Peters
Member of Congress

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John P. Sarbanes
Member of Congress

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Richard M. Nolan
Member of Congress

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Andr Carson
Member of Congress

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Paul Tonko
Member of Congress

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Eddie Bernice Johnson
Member of Congress

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Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress

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Bobby L. Rush
Member of Congress

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Gerald E. Connolly
Member of Congress